Giving up Facebook for Lent

Chocolate, swearing, eating out. These are things Christians have given up for Lent for decades.

Now there’s something new to sacrifice.

Facebook.

The average Facebook user spends 4 hours and 35 minutes a month posting updates on their relationships, checking friends’ vacation photos and playing games like Farmville on the social networking site, according to a January report from Experian Hitwise, a New York City-based global research firm.

That’s more time than most of us spend doing anything other than sleeping, exercising or being at work.

In an age in which Facebook sees more monthly traffic than Google, some Lenten observers are leaving their “friends” behind as part of their commitment to the 40-day fasting.

“Giving up the same things year after year gets boring and you have to freshen it up,” says the Rev. Alan Rudnick with the First Baptist Church in Ballston Spa. “With the popularity of social media, people will say, ‘I like Facebook or Twitter just as much as I like chocolate.’ ”

Several of Rudnick’s friends — and many of his parishioners — have “unliked” the social networking site for Lent. Each year, he says, more and more Christians opt for this sacrifice, almost making the sign-off in vogue, especially for the twenty- and thirtysomething set.

“I decided to give up Facebook because, for me, it seemed gluttonous,” says Lori Hardy, a 27-year-old from Waterford. “I was constantly logging in and out to get the latest feeds and updates, to check people’s pictures, to check myself into places, to see where others were, etc. I even had the application on my phone so anytime someone messaged me or replied to a post I would instantly know.”

The Facebook detox has been hard, she says. For the first few days she found herself mindlessly starting to type “www.face …” in her web browser. She’d also see the Facebook icon on her phone and itch to click it.

She’s deleted the app from her phone to help her resist the urge, but Facebook deprivation is setting in.

“The hardest part, I’ve found, is others referencing it, saying, ‘Hey, did you see so and so?’ or ‘I just put up new pics of the wedding’ — things I want to see and can’t,” says Hardy. “I have been craving it, and I often find myself sitting in front of my computer thinking … ‘hmmmm … what website can I look at instead? It’s made me realize just how much I have relied on Facebook to communicate with people.”

Our society is realizing how addictive social media have become, says Rudnick. It’s exhausting to try and keep up with 500 friends on Facebook, so people are welcoming the break as a faithful practice and saying “I need a breather and need to focus on my family, my job, my friends.”

This redirected focus is exactly why Christine Herrman likes her Lenten promise. Like Rudnick, she said she has she spent more time with family and friends, and her focus has improved.

“I’ve been more productive in almost every way,” says the 26-year-old from Rochester. “I’ve been more productive at work, reading a new book, preparing for my move in two weeks — just doing all the things that make me happy and benefit who I really am.”

And she says her decision has given her some personal insight and offered her fewer moments of self-doubt.

“I’m not a huge gossip and was never too nosy. Facebook changed that in me — it made me addicted to what everyone else (and by everyone else I mean mostly people that I don’t even spend time with in normal life) was doing,” says Herrman. “And really, aren’t we all a bit overloaded with information already? Why do we need to add hours of mostly meaningless ‘updates’ to that?”

Despite the positive outcome this year, Herrman says she will probably pick something else for next year, something more challenging and more difficult. She needs to wait until 2012 to see what her new Facebook may be, though.

In the meantime, she’s learned a lesson, saying she’ll pay much closer attention to how much she uses Facebook after Easter, when Lent ends.

“I really hope I don’t end up falling back down that rabbit hole,” she says.

4 hours and 35 minutes a month?!? HA! I’d love it if my wife only spent 4 hours and 35 minutes a month. She uses that up in 2 days. (SIGH) She says, “You have ESPN, I have Facebook.” Meanwhile, we share a house, a dog, 2 cats (who ignore me and the dog), and the food in the fridge. Oh, and our cars share the same garage.

I saw a link, on Facebook of all places, in which a retired bishop from a parish in the Austin, TX, area suggested that instead of giving up a deleterious habit, that folks should try to institute a societally beneficial one.

‘Really? Maybe it’s just me, but I thought it’d be WAY higher than that.’ – That’s only posting updates, correct? I’m sure browsing pictures, leaving comments for others and just bullsh%tting would be more like 15 hours.

Facebook is not an addiction. It is a new method of communicating with people. Since it is so new, people have not really begun designing methods for when and how to use it for certain purposes. One thing I can say is that it is just as important historically as things like the printing press and the telephone. It makes people able to do things that they could not do before. Before the invention of Facebook and throughout all of history so far, when a class graduates from high school it scatters to the four winds and most of the people never see each other ever again. With Facebook, everybody who knows each other and wants to stay in touch can now do so. Time and space become irrelevant. People who develop a career in any field can stay in contact with everybody else in that same field and develop a limitless network. Family no longer has to rely on weddings and funerals to see each other. This is not a trivial amusement to give up for Lent. This is a change in the world that is vitally important to… who knows yet? Let’s ride this wave and see where it takes us. And the Middle East. And China. And Cuba.

People give up easy stuff for Lent, facebook, candy, liquor. I would be more impressed by people who give up something significant like driving (take the bus or walk) or electricity (read by candlelight).